VOLUME CVI, NUMBER 28 PASADENA,CALWO~

Aleksander Chechkin shows why Caltech calls Ditch Day "highly telegenic and photogenic."

MAY 23,2005

Photo courtesy of pr.caltech.edu

LloydiesSwashbuckleDown

Moles Dig In itch art the hockingBy ADAM CRAIG

By MAYRA H. SHEIKH Every year, Caltech press releases trumpet ditch day as a prime example of Caltech student life at itsBlacker Hovse had its fair share most ebulient. In a May 17, 2005 release Jill Perry, a veteran press release author for Caltech, propounded

of elaborate, cleverly themed on this "annual end-of-school day of highly telegenic and photogenic pranks and games," and evenstacks this year. T.V. shows and Caltech's most widely-read student-run campus publication, the California Tech, features accounts frommovie themes were popular. The the students themselves of how much fun they had in their rollicking antics. Sadly, we at the Tech have By JOHNATHAN MALMAUDthemes had quite a range of moral uncovered startling evidence that, behind the colorful stack names and garish T-shirts lies a far starker andcontent; everything from a stack more disturbing reality. The first sign that something was amiss came from our on-the-scene photojournal- Yarr! Lloyd be having a vast arraybased on a children's show, Mr. ist Meng-Meng Fu: image after image of students frozen in statuesque poses. Students from Lloyd, Black- of non-scurvy stacks this year, withRogers, to one based on the HBO er and Ruddock stared back at us from the JPEG's with glazed, inert eyes, their hands hanging limply at everything ranging from pirate to vi-series Sex and the City, which their sides, feet planted flatly on the ground. Confirmation of our worst fears came a day later from staff rus, from off-campus hoola-hoopingexplores attitudes toward sex in photographer and Paul Miller correspondent Andrew Green posted an in-depth photographic study of the to 3D mazes in staircases.modern society. There was some- evolution of a pirate-themed Lloyd stack: forests of students transformed into inert mannequins. Even Capn' Jack Sparrow himself wouldthing for everyone. students who were not standing or sitting in a Caltech approximation of bolt upright slouched lifelessly have been proud of the first stack, a

The characters from the land of against nearby supports or appeared bent and twisted into unnatural positions. In the face of such over- swash-buckling pirate adventure in

ak b 1· h d' . whelming photographic evidence, we could only conclude that, during Ditch Day, Caltech underclassmen the oceans of Tech campus. Piratesm e e leve a to Journey mto were equipped with swords, coolthe real world to find Mr Rog enter a catatonic state in which they attain waxy posability. Seniors then take advantage of this moment of. - hats, and cute uniforms for the girlsers who had been kl'dnapped vulnerability to dress their victims in bizarre costumes and sometimes even place them in strange poses. In, . as they searched for a hidden treasureThe characters had to be clever this issue of the Tech, we have compiled eye-witness accounts and photographs from staff photographers, trove deep within the bowels of theand use sign language and puppet official Caltech publicity sites and other sources so that you can decide for yourself what clandestine school.shows to obtain information of ~~~~~~~~""a;;;ge""n""d""a""l""u""r""k""s""a""t""th""e""h""e""art~""of~th""e""e""e""n""·e""e..p...i""d""e""rrn;;;;',;,c,,,;o,;;,f,,;;th;;e;,,;;,st;;a;;;;ti;;c",;s;;tu;;d;;,e;,;;n;,;;t;;;s.~~~~~~~""",)lI Next was Bond, James Bond.the whereabouts of Mr. Rogers. Bond, represented by a group of fourEventually, Mr. Rogers, played Return of the Son of the Brlode of Ricketts or so, was most definitely shaken andby a parent who flew down just stirred as he engaged in cross-cam-for the occasion, was rescued. Mr. h M h A· d TV pus espionage to stop the villainsRogers treated his rescuers to root ouse: t e ovement: t e nlmate with the help ofthe Foxy Ladies, halfbeer floats and Pizza, Mr. Rogers h of whom were not ladies at all. Themadepeacewithhisabductoraf- Series: t e Movie: the Musical: the Ride: the men of mystery could be seen aroundter an apology and the day ended campus sniping each other with wa-on a happy note. Video Game: the Stacks ter-gun pistols.

The Sex and the City stack was They're the first into danger. Thevery educational. A good portion By ADAM CRAIG last ones out. The Special Ops stackofthemorningwasspentconvers- Putting a new twist on a tried- Day activities, "we circulated a means the right to vote." was divided into the special forcesing with Jane Curtis, the health and-true title, Galen Loram and Ian petition to end women's sufferage, Aaron Plattner threw down the ~~n~:tal~~~~i~i~~o~~~~s~~~E;g~~~educator; Candace Rypisi, of the Krajbich made mockery the mis- telling people that we were trying guantlet for his youngers in Sa- American way with brainpower andWomen's center; and the Nurse sion of Jackass: the Stack. Fresh- to end the suffering of women. tanisn: a race against time to un- water rifles that looked like they werePractitioners at the health center, man Yaer Ben Assa recalled that We got twenty-eight signatures at cover five five-digit codes that out of Men in Black. The bio groupabout college, sex, birth control, the merry band "dressed as hoboes, Caltech and more than forty total, would release the pentagram- was equipped with full-body hazardand being responsible. The stack putting Cannablis Deodorant, Old mostly from young women. Well shaped lock on his door, reveal- suits and the Special Forces had thealso included foot massages from soy sauce, skunky beer and rancid dressed peoply at Borders and Pen- ing the mysteries within. "He just unmistakable green anti-terrorismthe participants of the Pulp Fic- ketchup on our clothes, then went ny Lane Video signed our petition, gave us the first one." recounted uniforms recognized by all Countertion Stack, a fashion show relay to eat at the Athenaeum for break- and only the two clerks at Penny freshman Mary Wahl "The second Strike players,

fast." In addition to random Ditch Lane pOI'nted out that SUU t b d . t' Crace across the bridge over Mil- ., llerage we go y ecnp mg a program The only off-campus stack was

Continued on Page 8, Column 1 Continued on Page 8, Column 3 Continued on Page 8, Column 3

2 THE CALIFORNIA TECH NEWS MAY 23, 2005

Raben MorellCirculation

Lisa TranBusiness Manager

Adam CraigEditor

Alex SheiveLayout Manager

The Tech is published weekly except duringvacation and examination periods hy the As­sociated Students of the California Institnteof Technology, Inc. The opinions expressedherein are strictly those of the anthors andadvertisers.

Letters and submissions are welcome; e­mail snbmissions to tech@tech.caltech.edu asplain-text attachments, including the author'sname, by Friday of the week before pnbhca­tion. Sorry the Tech does not accept anony­mons contribntions. The editors reserve theright to edit and abridge all snbmissions forany reason. All written work remains propertyof its author.

The advertising deadline is five p.m. Friday;alladvertising shonld be snbmitted electroni­cally or as camera-ready art, but the Tech canalso do simple typesetting and arrangement.All advertising inqniries shonld be dIrectedto the business manager at business@tech.caltech.edu. For snbscription information,please send mail to "Snbscriptions."

VOLUME CVI, NUMBER 28

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her husband;1500+ SAT pretty, healthy,responsible, healthy familyhistory, preferablY' from an

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Continued on Page 8, Column 1

The California TechCaltech 40-58, Pasadena, CA 91125

editorial desk: (626) 395-6153advertising desk: (626) 395-6154

editorial e-mail: tech@tech.caltech.edu

discussion," said Youra.The panelists this year were

Margaret Wertheim, a writerwhose articles have appeared inpublications including The NewYork Times and the LA Weekly,Caltech Professor Christof Kochand Leonard Mlodinow, who haswritten multiple books and evenworked on shows such as StarTrek: the Next Generation. Each

magnificently.Nick has participated in the­

atre since high school, first asan actor and eventually as aplaywright. Nick has been a per­forming member ofTACIT sincehe began college and values im­mensely the encouragement andfeedback about that he has got­ten from the TACIT community.Though he has experimentedwith other venues of writing,such as short stories, he affirmsthat plays remain his forte.

In addition to being a drama­tist, Nick is a math major andmember of Dabney Hovse. Hewill be continuing his studies inmath next fall as a graduate stu­dent at the University of Michi­gan in Ann Arbor, where he plansto continue acting in and writingplays in his free time.

The three-act "Sonne" will beplaying in Ramo Auditorium,preceding a discussion with theauthor and cast members, dur­ing Memorial Day weekend.Showtimes are: 8p.m. FridayMay 27th, 7p.m. Saturday May28 th

, 2p.m. Sunday May 29th, and2p.m. Monday May 30th. Tick­ets are $3 for students. One canview the script for "Sonne" attacit.caltech.eduI1004/sonne/

riters Striveebility

By MAYRA H. SHEIKH

Writing plays an essential rolein communicating scientific dis­coveries both to other scientistsand to the general public. Rec­ognizing the difficulty of writ­ing about science to non-scien­tists, Words Matter, Humanitiesand the Provost cosponsored theThird Annual Science Writingsymposium in Sharp Auditoriumon Monday May 16.

Steve Youra, the Director of theHixon Writing Center and Chairof the Words Matter Program,opened the night by explainingthe etymology of the word "sym­posium," the Greek root of whichmeans "drinking together."

"In the spirit of the Greeks, Ihope this will be a night of lively

Sciencefor Intelli

By CHRISTINE CHANG

come a God and Omega becausehe finds love. As the play unrav­els, the power hungry Alpha ma­nipulates the faith of the nativesof the dark lands, steering eventstoward a tragic conclusion thatchallenges many common as­sumptions about religion andmorality.

Nicholas Rupprecht wrote"Sonne" specifically for thisTACIT production. Shirley Mar­neus, Lecturer for the HSS de­partment, usually directs TACITproductions. According to Nick,Shirley originally suggested thathe write and produce a play be­fore his graduation in June 2005.Nick started writing the playlast school year, 2003-2004,and made the final revisions tothe play during the winter 2005term. Though Nick has writtenmany plays, "Sonne" is the firstone to reach the stage. To en­sure that it would, he engineered"Sonne" to fit TACIT's budgetsfor time, money and effort, rely­ing on the talent and dedicationof the cast to bring the story andcharacters to life. And so theydid, as Nick reports that under­grads including Hannah Shafaat,Cecilia Yu, John Sadowski andDaniel McLaury understandtheir roles and perform them

·ses Memorial Day Weekend

G

owerlngthe Planet

For more information, contactevents@caltech.edu, or visitwww.events.caltech.edu. Alllectures will be available onlineat Caltech's Streaming Theater,http://today.caItech.edu/theater.

By JILL PERRY

Gasoline at $3 a gallon isaround the corner; greenhousegases continue to build up fromfossil-fuel consumption, and therelentless decline in availablefossil-fuel resources continues.Where in the world will our en­ergy come from, asks NathanLewis, the George L. ArgyrosProfessor and professor of chem­istry at the California Institute ofTechnology, and what would ittake for the world to get awayfrom fossil fuels and switch toalternate energy?

On Wednesday, May 25, at 8p.m., Lewis will address thesequestions and discuss the chal­lenges involved in breakingaway from fossil fuels in histalk, "Powering the Planet," partof the Ernest C. Watson LectureSeries.

For one thing, it will take morethan a willingness on our part tobuy a hybrid car or have solarpanels installed on your roof,he says. If we want to use wind,solar thermal, solar electric, bio­mass, hydroelectric, nuclear, andgeothermal energy, it will take alot of planning and willingnesson the part of governments andindustry. It will take R&D in­vestment, a favorable price perunit of energy to get anyone toproduce alternative energy, andplenty of resources to createthose energy sources.

Lewis will discuss these andother hurdle--technical, politi­cal, and economic--that must beovercome before the widespreadadoption of alternate energytechnologies can be achieved.

Caltech has offered the Wat­son Lecture Series since 1922,when it was conceived by thelate Caltech physicist EarnestWatson as a way to explain sci­ence to the local community.Seating for this free public eventin Beckman Auditorium on theCaltech campus is on a first­come, first-served basis, begin­ning at 7:30 p.m.

Theatre Art· at the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology (TACIT)is doing somethin~ new; TACITis presenting "S6ime," an origi­nal play written and directed bya current Caltech senior, Nicho­las Rupprecht. In the spirit of theworks of Samuel Beckett andThomas Stoppard, this tragicplay poses questions about thedifferences between religion andfanaticism, nature, the existenceof free will and the meaning ofmorality.

"Sonne" is the story of twofriends, Alpha and Omega, whoare hiking in Kentucky whenthey find themselves in a landwithout sun. The residents ofthis dark, barren land worshipthe sun as the sole deity and be­lieve that someday he, the sun,will come back and deliver themfrom the darkness. Both Alphaand Omega find temptations tostay in the dark land: Alpha be­cause he sees opportunity to be-

Sonneow

umn, titled "Grad Student Eti­quette" depicts a new grad stu­dent at a social function asking"How is your research going?"and "How long before you fin­ish your thesis?". A knowingolder grad student corrects thenewbie with stern smacks onthe head to convey that talkingabout the prospect of never-end­ing years in grad school is ta­boo. Part of what makes theseyears so endless is Cham's ver­sion of Newton's First Law ...of Graduation: "A grad studentin procrastination tends to stayin procrastination unless an ex­ternal force is applied to it". Forthose interested in more humor­ous anecdotes, surf on over tohttp://www.phdcomics.com/comics/comics.php.

This Thursday (May 26) at5:30 in the Beckman InstituteAuditorium, Cham will be giv­ing a talk followed by a recep­tion, where he will sign copies ofcompilations ofhis comics: PiledHigher and Deeper and Life isTough and Then You Graduate.The event is sponsored by theGSC and the Caltech Y. Copiesofthe comic books will be avail­able for sale then courtesy of theCaltech Bookstore.

result in intervention strategieswhere they could be coached tofocus their attention on facial ex­pressions, even though they haveno natural inclination to do so.

The pilot research award will beearmarked for a two-year period.Adolphs says that the first yearof funding will involve a closestudy of how subjects view faces,followed in the second year withfMRI studies using Caltech's newscanners.

"If our hypotheses are sup­ported, the implications mightbe dramatic for rehabilitation,"Adolphs says. "In a sense, wecould be helping people with au­tism to see the world socially bytelling them specifically how tolook at the world with their eyemovements."

Founded in 1995, the Cure Au­tism Now foundation is an organi­zation of parents, clinicians, andleading scientists committed toaccelerating the pace of biomedi­cal research in autism through re­search, education, and outreach.

Since its founding, the organi­zation has committed over $23million in research, the establish­ment of and ongoing support forthe Autism Genetic Resource Ex­change, and numerous outreachand awareness activities aimedat families, physicians, govern­mental officials, and the generalpublic.

Crippling Depressionmay be the comic of choice ofmany Caltech undergrads, butsince the brains behind that striphave long since graduated, a newcomic superpower has emerged.Dr. Jorge Cham is the creativedrive behind Ph.D. (Piled High­er and Deeper). Cham receivedhis Ph.D. from Stanford Univer­sity, where he first started. thecomic. While at Stanford, Chamand his colleagues developedthe Sprawl family of robots,purportedly one of the fastestand most robust running hexa­pods. He is currently a postdoc­toral instructor and researcherof mechanical engineering hereat Caltech. Cham has taught anumber of courses here, includ­ing ME71 (Intro to Design),ME170 (Cartooning and CAD),and ME70 (Intro to Kinemat­ics). His research now focuseson brain-machine interface tech­nology for applications such asneural prosthetics. With all that,he still has free time to create acomic strip every week!

For anyone who thinksthat grad school is all fun andgames, Piled Higher and Deeperoffers a gleefully grim glimpseinside the life or lack thereof ofa grad student. One classic col-

By ROBERT TINDOL

Caltech euroscientistReceives Grant to StudyAutistic Patients ProcessFacial Information

chool G

IntertninableLaugh_t_er _

By MENG-MENG FU

Ralph Adolphs, a neuroscien­tist at the California Institute ofTechnology, has been awarded a$120,000 grant from the Cure Au­tism Now foundation to study theway that autistic patients processinformation about other people'sfacial expressions.

The award will supplementAdolphs's ongoing work to un­derstand the role of a brain struc­ture, known as the amygdala, incertain disorders that make itdifficult for sufferers to interpretother people's emotions. Adolphsis a professor of psychology andneuroscience at Caltech and holdsa joint appointment at the Univer­sity of Iowa College of Medi­cine.

According to Adolphs, thegrant will lead to progress in un­derstanding how the amygdalamay be involved in autism, andalso to possible ways for peoplewith autism to improve their so­cial functioning.

Earlier studies have shown thatpersons with autism have a hardtime looking with sufficient atten­tion at the faces of other people toread emotions. Yet, there is tanta­lizing evidence that the problemmay not be entirely an inability toread facial expressions, but ratherthe lack of ability to focus atten­tion on faces so that expressionscan even be rocessed. Therefore,better knowledge of how peoplewith autism look at faces could

THE CALIFORNIA TECH COMMENTARY MAY 23, 2005 3

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zguan@caltech.edu

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4 THE CALIFORNIA TECH COMMENTARY MAY 23,2005

Photos by Bob Pa~

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6 THE CALIFORNIA TECH COMMENTARY MAY 23, 2005

We

dent, but hold the belief that Bushis one of history's greatest mon­sters They honestly think that heconstantly lies to them in orderto further an agenda of ruthlessimperialism and revenge for theemasculation of his father. Yet,aside from the few whose beliefsystem allows for civil disobe­dience verging on anarchism,none of them have the sheer willto fume over these beliefs longenough to act. Some liberalsdismiss many Bush supportersas ignorant, gun-toting, patriotichicks who cling blindly to out­dated morals. Yet, were the redstates to believe they were beingruled by an evil maniac elected ina farce, those very qualities makeme confident that their disenfran­chisement would be a bit moreloud and bloody. The Civil Warwas not started by the industrial­ized north because slavery waswrong. The North wallowed co­zily in its wealth and moral high­ground until the Southern statesdecided they didn't want to playif Lincoln was making the rules.What's a Dissident to Do?

So, here we are with a govern­ment that brazenly cannot be trust­ed, and a news media that can'tget enough of the people whobelieve them to put down theirbongs and march. Perhaps it's forthe best. Perhaps "We the Peopleof the United States" are too un­dereducated to make decisionsthat "form a more perfect Union,establish Justice, insure domesticTranquility, provide for the com­mon defense, promote the generalWelfare, and secure the Bless­ings of Liberty to ourselves andour Posterity". The people in theBush Administration are qualifiedfor the most part, and sure as hellknow more about global politicsand war than the vast majority ofvoters. They certainly wouldn'tbe stretching our budget and mili­tary so thin if they weren't afraidthat a democracy and strong pres­ence in Iraq was essential for usto maintain global dominance. Ijust wish that they'd be honestwith those they represent, evenif it's not what we want to hear.When the voters are fed misin­formation by their government, ademocracy becomes an oligarchypacifying its citizens with the il­lusion of representation.

To quote Clinton (George),"You don't need the bullet whenyou got the ballot."

By A.R. SHElVEthat the U.S. would invade Iraq,Bush's administration had de­cided to oust Hussein and dupethe American people with a ghoststory about terrorist activities andweapons of mass destruction." Ifumed with anger for a bit at thisconfirmation, and then waited forthe news to cause a scandal in thiscountry. As far as I can tell, thishas not happened. I would havenever seen the memo myself hadMichigan Rep. John Conyers notdrafted an open letter to Bush thatwas signed by 88 other congress­men. He feared that the memowould "fall down the memoryhole during wall-to-wall coverageof the Michael Jackson trial and arunaway bride.", and it seems hisbest efforts have failed to preventhis fears from becoming reality.The American People areTired of Disbelieving

The only reason for this apathyin the face of corruption that I canfathom is that the public is dividedbetween those who won't listen,and those who are tireg of caring.The phrase "weapons of massdestruction" has Bush detractorsand supporters alike turning thepage. The Bush administrationhas perfected the art of attritionthrough denial. Whenever a con­cern is raised about their conduct,they deny the claims until thosewho disbelieve them are forced togo on with their lives. You almosthave to admire it, if you can stom­ach the fact that this art is writinghistory books, and ending lives.So You Say You Want aRevolution?

Bush's majority in the pastelection is deceiving if viewedin black and white. A significantportion of the losing minority notonly would prefer another presi-

illingClaimsInvade

False

ace~

2002 UK MemoBush Planned toIraq UnderPretenses

On May Ist, a classified memowas coughed up from the cam­paign-trail-worn throat of TonyBlair's administration. Thememo, from July of 2002, de­scribed a meeting in which thehead of MI6 reported that "Bushwanted to remove Saddam,through military action, justifiedby the conjunction of terrorismand WMD. But the intelligenceand facts were being fixed aroundthe policy." He was also of theopinion that the National SecurityCouncil had "no patience withthe UN route" and that there was"little discussion of the aftermathafter military action." Britain'sforeign secretary observed thatalthough Bush was determinedto go to war, "the case was thin.Saddam was not threatening hisneighbors, and his WMD capa­bility was less than that of Libya,North Korea or Iran." Blair's At­torney General then advised that"the desire for regime changewas not a legal base for militaryaction." The memo was a smallscandal in the UK, but Blair dis­missed its contents as "nothingnew" and it did not prevent himfrom making history by leadingthe Labour Party to its third con­secutive victory in a general elec­tion.The Memo Is AlmostWholly Ignored in theUnited States

I came across The SundayTimes (timesonline.co.uk) print­ing of the memo and thought"Finally, proof that, almost ninemonths before the announcement

refrained from counter-stackinga senior who built another stackby covering his floor with taped­down cups, and we filled thesecups neither with water nor withany less seemly liquid. We did notlearn to pick locks, and we did notsteal any important documentsfrom the institute, especially notNobel Prizes. Nothing much hap­pened for most of the day; we sataround, did math problems andmemorized portions of the AS­CIT bylaws.

I had a great time that made melook forward to building a greatstack next year. My only regretis that my conscientious absti­nence from the above preventedme from making time to not playwith liquid nitrogen. Rest assuredI won't not un-exlude these frommy stack next year. Or maybe Iwill not fail to re-include them,whichever one does not get meCRaCked; that would be double­plus un-good.

ayBy JEFFREY PHILLIPS

otDitch Day was a blast this year

thanks to all the seniors who madeit possible. More importantly, Iwould like to thank the Deans fordictating the guidelines for a safeand sane Ditch Day. I can assureyou I followed them to the letter,unswervingly. It is important forme to state clearly exactly whatdid not happen, lest rumors to thecontrary begin to spread.

No one in my stack climbedtrees. No one rode vehicles acrosscampus, especially not by hitch­ing a ride on the back. We did notput dry ice in our drinks, especial­ly not the one I took to Mannion'shouse for lunch, We did not playwith fireworks. No one playedwith fire, and certainly no one setthemselves on fire. We did notleave campus during any portionof my stack. We did not climbroofs, especially not to shoot peo­ple with water guns we borrowedfrom another stack. Drugs andalcohol had no part in my DitchDay experience.

Although the administrationnever expressly forbid it, we also

THE CALIFORNIA TECH NEWS MAY 23, 2005

I love your mom,Parvathy Menon

to call everyone's attention tothe "wonderful, sexy" ASCITformal banner. His next mis­sion is to post fliers to luregrad students to come to theformal. Because grad studentsare hot.. .squared.

7. Dima requests help past­ing fliers around campus.Warner complains that hisscotch tape is see-through andthus, difficult to locate. Pe­ter begins to sing praises ofSprement. "Spray adhesive...ohhhh... gawd, mmm... ho­hhhh." Trembling in ecstasy,Peter reaches for Dima. Dimaleaves.

8. Minutes and officers: lookfor updates on Donut... uh,soon. Also new Budget to beposted... soon.

9. Excuse to eat good food.Old BoD/New BoD dinnerwithin the next month.

Important Dates13. Mother's Day on Sun­

day, May 8th•

Meeting adjourned 5:35 PM.

Money Requests:2. Barrett requests $600 for

Coffeehouse party.Vote: 6-0-0 (approved)

3. Angelina and Neha re­quest $100lhouse for multi­house event funding (Lloyd +Fleming =Love) for waterparktrip on Saturday.

Vote: 6-0-0 (approved).4. Three undergrads (Rich­

ard Eager, Joe Wasem, andAlex McCauley) took out Pro­fessor Mark Wise to lunch atthe Ath - requests ASCIT ac­count funding of event. Kellymotions for a vote. Peter beatsTodd soundly in motioningfor a second... Todd bows hishead in defeat but a clenchedfist and a murderous glint inhis eye let all know that thisis not the last of Todd "Death­Tractor" Gingrich.

Vote: 6-0-0 (approved).5. Scott requests $100 for

once-a-term BlueSlip Milk­shakes and a pancake break­fast.

Vote: 5-0-1 (approved)Other Business:5. Meeting to discuss and

propose Bylaw Changes - Fri­day, 3rd Floor SFL, 7-9pm.

6. Dima arrives on the scene

2005-06 Intel Foundation Ph.. D",FenowshlpAward Recipients

'" Rrd~rn'A mlllowshiiP research uses X-ray diffraction toopUaid measureJnent melhod ca._Bed CClIhAiil"Aw",t

Brown and WaJlterswere awarded Ph.D. fellowshipgrants from the Int. Foundation for the :2OQ5..()6academic

Present: Warner Leedy,Kelly Lin, Peter Foley, ToddGingrich, Dmitriy Kernasovs­kiy, Parvathy Menon, Meng­Meng Fu, Michelle Wyatt

Guests: Angelina Crans,Richard Eager, Scott Medling,Barett Heyneman

Absent: Ryan Farmer

Dima, Michelle, and Peterstill need to mail out our clubfunding letters.

May 5th, 2005

Wuv,Peet-uh Foh-wee(Peter Foley)

Next week action items:People finish writing let­

tersWarner looks into sound

systemBylaw changes will be

prepped by people.

We don't know where theSAC mailroom copier is.Ryan will probably try to findout more.

Michelle says don't cheat.

Introduc­tion:

1. Call toOrder, 5:08PM

CIT Minutes xtrava anza

+ Kaplan programs and services.

Meanwhile, Kelly thinksDima's pants are stylish.Dima said they're just filthy.

Kelly asks if we'll havephotographer? Dima andRyan will look into it, talkto photographers and findsomeone.

Peter will send out an an­nouncement about mc sign­ups, Warner will send one forASCIT sign-ups.

Dima asks about the -$340banner for the formal, asksfor people's approval, it willbe used for several years. Mi­chelle isconcernedthatpeoplewalk around with their headsdown. Ryan says to put it onground, Dima says doormat.Dima motions for it, Peterseconds, 5-0 passes. We talkabout the colors, red/white isflemish, yellow/black is ugly,we'll do orange/white, butnot a neon. It'll be good andseeable, though.

Dima talk about print­ing cards and fliers, says weshould print post-cards tosave money, do 2500 cardsinstead of 1000 fliers forcheaper. They'd make it easyfor people to mail them tofriends and such. Dima willneed help stuffing, Tech ex­press can maybe distributethem for us.

April 28th, 2005

Meeting Begins: 5:06 pm

There was fight betweenDima and Warner, Warnerwas killed. Nominations willhappen next week, electionsthe following Monday. </lies>

.. Dell Laptops.

Present: Warner, Kelly, Pe­ter, Ryan, Dima, Michelle,

Guests: Michelle's friend- Kimberly Russell, RubyFeng, Helena Wang

+ Tickets from STA Travel to visit yourtarget grad school.

.. And more!

People talked amongstthemselves. The phrase"Meng-meng can't do Thurs­day" was mentioned, perhapsby Warner. <lies> They areclearly up to no good. Canwe say corruption? The AS­CIT bank account will soonbe empty. There is nothingwe can do to stop it.

Approving the budget fromthe Saturday meeting wasmotioned by Peter, secondedby Dima, approved 5-0.

Wamer got a call fromKeris. He said "sure," "ok,""ok," giggled, "oh, alright","yeah", giggled, "he's in themidwest", "I can come intomorrow, what time do youthink would be good for that.3:30 is good, I can come inat 4 then, ok, ok, awesome.thank you very much, surething, bye-bye."

Visit kaptest.comjgiveaway by May 31st to enter!

THE CALIFORNIA TECH8

lacker Stacks ack VoidContinued from Page 1, Column 4

5

into the ceiling. One member of thehuman torch team attempted to shinesome light on the situation by spray­ing Lysol into the air and then acti­vating his small flamethrower. Thatled to some scary moments when itwas realized that the maze was en­tirely wooden and that it could taketen minutes to climb out. Luckily itdidn't catch on fire.

Dr. Doom then united with the Fan­tastic Four to stop the larger space­faring threat by completing anothertype of maze which required you toslide a pair of connected wooden barsfrom corner of a table to the oppositethe corner. The trick: the bars couldonly move through a complex patternof grooves etched into the table thatwere concealed with a sheet. After afrustrating hour or so, the FantasticFour finally completed it and receivedtheir passwords to the Fantastic Fourheadquarters computer. Dr. Doomobtained his password by releasingthe Ultimate Power; i.e. openning amagneticly-sealed box connect-ing a battery to it. allthe passwords, the computer re\realedthe location of the dastardly monsterwhom we quickly terminated withvast, vast amounts of water from ourguns. Our prize for thisfantastic adventure: tickets to themovie.

hid a clue was still wet, so it tookonly five minutes instead of fortyto get the clue out of it. We filledin the extra time by having themuse twelve-foot poles to poke atpeople."

Senior David Griswald showedhis underclassmen how to say,"No" to drugs in style with ReeferMadness: the Musical: the Stack.They began their day hanging upanti-drug posters before task-mas­ter Griswald showed them that be­coming terrorists, a natural conse­quence of drug use, was hard work,forcing them to dawn tenorist uni­forms and heave water balloons atMilikan Library. He then lead histroop of penitent tenorists to thestudent services building for anti­drug wisdom from Dean Revel. Inthe final challenge of the first halfof the day, each student. set out tofind his or her anti-drug, be it theBible, ham or bits of string. Thesecond half focused on homagesto the off-broadway musical pro­duction of Reefer Madness withkareoke, clips from the new mo­tion picture version of the musicaland brain-shaped gelatin snacks.At the end of this mad rush, theerrant youths retired to a wadingpool in the Ricketts bar. Griswalddescribed the stacking experienceas, "exhausting...but up there asone of my most fun experiencesat Caltech." Sarah Wilhoitchose a more manageable, inti­mate strategy by limiting her stackto six people. At the end of the day,none of these people had returnedto Ricketts and, as such, none wereavailable for comment.

ROUTE 3Archives015A-74

Chester, playing Battleship anddriving an inflatable shark attachedto a remote control boat.

Another stack that attractedmanyof this year's freshmen was ProjectMayhem. First-time stack partici­pant Natlie Szweda described it as"fight club-inspired mischief...putting up anti-Starbucks post­ers at star bucks, anti-Blockbusterposters at Blockbuster, giving T­shirts we had spray painted to amainstream clothing store calledanthropology...We even did somebinary code cracking." Of thestack's organizers, Christian Guti­errez, Lionel Jingles and ManuelGarcia, she noted, "They were re­ally well organized. We had a littledown time after lunch, then werevery busy all afternoon."

Maria Ho and Andrea Kung in­troduced an element of roll playinto Invader Zim: the Stack byattaching to their underlings thenames the characters Dib, Gaz,Professor Membrane, Ms. Bitters,GIR, Tak, Tallests and Evil DeathBee from the stack's televisednamesake. The episode "Zim EatsWaffles" inspired them to cook forsaid underclassmen a breakfast ofwaffles. They then set out to stopZim's plan to destroy the world. Asfreshman Lauren Porter describedit, the stack consisted of "puzzles,clues, hula, basketball with bowl­ing pins and a football painted tolook like flying pigs. It was a lot offun." Of the stack-making process,senior Andrea Kung opined, "It'sreally fucking tiring. No mat­ter what you plan, you'll still beworking until the last minute. Forinstance, the cement in which we

Mr. Fantastic tried to repair the dam­age, all the while with microchipsglued to the experiments recordinghow much time each experiment wasoffline. When it seemed that Mr. Fan­tastic had won, Dr. Doom proved oth­erwise when he removed the batteryfrom one of the experiment chips andapplied a voltage to random termi­nals on it, randomizing the recordeddata which had previosly indicatedFantastic's victory.

After that the Four received a pairof headphones tied to an electronicreceiver and were told to find thetransmitter somewhere on campus.Upon tranversing the entirety of thcampus twice and only staticand an occasional themeon the headphones, which proved tobe coming from the Steele physicsbuilding electronics, found the

layingm the first places theylooked.

Each team then had to a Si-mon-says type on a circuit withbuttons and LEDs corresponding tomusical notes (it was had a Lit­tle Lamb) in order to reveal the nextclue on an on-board LCD to visit thecave ofInvisible 'Voman's monstrousseafaring lover. The cave turned outto be an elaborate pitch-black mazebuilt in one of Lloyd's staircase. Themaze required you to climb up, down,and sideways while looking for yournext clue without head

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The California TechCaHech 40-58

Pasadena, CA 91125

a retro trip to the 'beach as severalLloydies tried to get in touch withtheir inner Hippies. Along the beach,participants met a real-live psychicwho sensed their future was to havea hoola-hooping contest at a 70's din­er, which they promptly did. Cluesappeared in episodes of "That 70'sShow" on a laptop they received.

In Fantastic Four: the Stack, fiveteams of four or five people, each rep­resenting Mr. Fantastic, the InvisibleWoman, the Human Torch, the Thingand the nefarious Dr. Doom, com­peted against each other and againstthe evil space monster who wantedto suck out thc life-force of all thepeople on Earth without becoming aCaltech professor first.

The fun began when Mr. Fantasticstole Dr. Doom's scientific break­through and bagcl breakfast, causingDr. Doom to become evil and am­bush the Fantastic Four fromroof with vast of water bal-loons.

Mr. Fantastic then to setup experiments in the sU!l-b;lsemcntsof buildings throughout campus. Dr.Doom could the experi­ments, long bars of wood, by pressingtwo buttons simultaneously on thewooden planks. Mr. Fantastic couldre-enable his experiments by press­ing the same buttons. Thus a furioushour-and-a-half passed with the Dr.Doom team running from basementto basement as

that would output the code." ex­plained sophomore Nicholas Hut­zler. "For the third, he sent us on awild goose chase after a bucket ofdried cement. Only after we foundthe bucket did we realize that thefourth clue was on the head of thesledge hammer we were carryingwith us." chimed the two in uni­son. "The he just hid in the re­mote control to the butwe had to dive into a big pile ofstyrofoam beads after the last one.We then made a second burrito outof the styrofoam and some fabric,"in referrence to the original bur­rito, an ancient and hoary bean­bag cushion held in fear and awein Ricketts lore. After this long andfrenzied quest, behind the door theweary code crackers at last foundtheir reward: "a mini-fridge withcrackers, cheese and fruit." Manya deck-swabbing freshman, saltysophomore and barnacle-encrustedjunior hoved into port for KamalahChang's and Veronica Sovero's"Dude, Where's My Pirate Ship?"As freshman Matthew Wiermanspins the yarn, "We all got drunklast night and lost our clothes, ourpirate ship and our booty and hadto spend all day getting them backfrom various wenches," which inpractice entailed "going aroundcampus and getting things backfrom secretaries," who, being fine,upstanding and extremely under­standing people in real life, game­ly enacted the roles of the wileygaurdians of tropical fish-patternedshorts and bandannas, pirate logo­bearing T-shirts and other swag.Other highlights of the eight-hour­tour included watching Disney'sPirates of the Carribean in 260 S.

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plete the stack. In the afternoon,the students had to surpass fluffy,the three headed dog keepingsentinel near the gene pool, to re­trieve the philosopher's stone andfind their bribe.

The American Gladiatorscould be seen battling all overcampus. They were seen on theAthenaeum Lawn with largerthan life inflatable basketballsand hoops. Later, the red and blueteams were seen duking it out inplatforms in Millikan Pond, withwhat appeared to be giant Qu-tips.The finale of the stack included anawesome zip-line running fromoutside a south facing Blackerwind,nw to Blacker Beach.

Other Blacker stack themeswere based on: Pulp'-'''''UUl1uau, The Art of Garden­ing, and Bach.All the stacks were impressive:they were and fun.We will find out soon whetherthe next class can live up to thestandards set by this year' stackbecause Ditch Day is Tomorrow:Go to bed early frosh! !

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the importance of explaining whythe scientific questions were im­portant by connecting them to therest of the universe. He noted thatit was important not to talk downto the audience by imagining whatthe the ideal reader would want toknow. To make sure that the writ­ing is understandable, people inmany disciplines should read themanuscript and offer concretefeedback.

Later in hisphasized that a science writer forthe general public cannot pleaseeverybody. Because the writerhas to simplify concepts to makethem understandable, many sci­entists object to the resulting gen­eralizations.

"You can't write for the expertsif you're writing for the widerpublic," said Wertheim, agreeingwith Koch.

Mlodinov then stood up toshare his experiences.

"My motivation is to interestpeople principally not interestedin science," said Mlodinov. "Iwant to excite people to the ro­mance of science, excitement ofscience, passion of science."

He explained the importance offinding one's own style and car­ing about the subject.

"If you don't love what you'rewriting, you shouldn't be writ­ing," he said.

Through Star Trek, he learnedthe importance of matching thewriter to the audience, so thatboth care about the subject. Thiscan be done by shaping the storyand showing how dramatic it re­ally is.

He ended by expressing hislove of science:

"I write about science becauseI am in awe of all these ideas," hesaid.

Through the rest of the night,the panelist talked about theseopening remarks with each otherand answered questions from theaudience. They discussed the so­ciety of America and its reactionto science and intellectualism,particularly' the general public'signorance of science, which af­fects policy decisions and manyother areas of life.

As Wertheim summarized it,"Science is so much a part of ourworld."

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likan pond, fishing a chocolatecake out of a dumpster, and sub­mitting a drawing of a vagina foran art exhibition.

The seniors who made of ThePirates of the Caribbean stacktasked the participants with rais­ing a flag amidst the wreckageof the Iron Maiden. The stack­ers, however, were a step aheadof the seniors. Like true pirates,the members of the stack went be­yond necessity. They constructeda boat from the wreckage provid­ed, a completely unexpected twistto the stack. The flag was raisedand a fun noodle attack from theother team ensued as planned.

Hogwarts came to CaItech thisyear in the form of a stack basedon Potter. The students

morning stuffvarious classes; not math or

classes, but magic classes.students all had wands made

of four different of electron-ics: UV red laser,and multi-colored LED.Each type wand could performcertain tasks necessary to com-

panelist began with a short com­mentary on his or her experiencewith writing about science for thegeneral public.

"My whole career has beendevoted to trying to speak topeople about science who are notthe canonical science readers,"said Wertheim, She explainedhow she tried to write especiallyfor women and younger readers,even publishing pieces in Voguewhile she still lived in Australiaand writing an educational mini­series to appeal to teenage girls.Unfortunately, the American edi­tors of Vogue refused to publishher scientific articles.

"The hardest thing was towrite science for teenage girls,"said Wertheim. She had to be su­premely aware of the audience,remembering their interests andalluding to cultural referencesthat they could recognize.

"How do we speak to peoplewho bought A Brief History ofTim and never got past chapterone?" Wertheim said. Among thetips she gave, she indicated theimportance of locating sciencein the wider cultural landscapeof history, philosophy, theology,arts and other fields of thought."There is this widespread publichunger to hear about the wide­spread beauty of science that isn'tbeing met," she said. To satisfythis craving, the Institute of Fig­uring, a feral science organizationthat Wertheim founded, sponsorslectures that present scientificideas to the public in an interest­ing and relevant manner.

Next, Koch stood to give hisopening remarks.

"I find myself here to my sur­prise," he said. "I think of myselfas a scientist and only as a scien­tist."

Yet, he did emphasize the im­portance of writing in science.

"It is essential to learn how tocommunicate cleanly and con­cisely," said Koch.

Koch acknowledged that writ­ing for scientists was easier be­cause they shared a language andjargon. Koch emphasized that.When writing for the general pub­lic, the clarity of the writing re­flects the writer's understandingof the subject from all possibleangles.

Furthermore, he emphasized

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